


memory is a fickle thing

by cthulho



Series: here comes the reaper [2]
Category: Rooster Teeth/Achievement Hunter/Funhaus RPF
Genre: Immortal Fake AH Crew, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-17
Updated: 2017-07-17
Packaged: 2018-12-03 12:53:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,340
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11532648
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cthulho/pseuds/cthulho
Summary: so jeremy's dead best friend who he's kinda gay for is back.that's fun.





	memory is a fickle thing

**Author's Note:**

> it's been a while dudes but reaper part 2 is here!! this might become a chaptered thing, I haven't decided if part 3 will be its own separate piece of not

“So lemme get this straight. Your boss, the Raven Queen, is the goddess of death, and you’re her bounty hunter.” Jeremy says for the third time.

“Yup. And I take souls to the Ether, the afterlife.” Matt says, and Jeremy nods slowly.

“Okay. You were collecting souls when I first saw you, I couldn’t see you clearly ‘cause of magic,” He counts the reasons out on his fingers, “other people couldn’t see you since they didn't know you, and you’ve been around ‘cause everyone dies here.” Matt takes a sip of his drink and nods.

“You could only see me ‘cause your mind knew something about me that it didn’t fully realize.” So Jeremy was so gay for Matt back in the fifties he could see him through fucking death god magic. Wow.

“Alright then. Next question, where was I when you showed me my memories? The Ether?” Jeremy props his head on his hand to wait.

“No, that was a different plane. It doesn’t have a name, no one really goes there. It’s just kinda there.” Matt shrugs.

“But why’s it there then? Why’d I go there for the memory marathon?” Jeremy asks, trying to sort all the new information in his head. Immortality, grim reapers, death gods, magic; it’s a lot of shit for a guy to learn in one day.

“I don’t know why, it’s just what happens.” Matt plays with his cuff links absently, looking in the distance thoughtfully. “It’s a weird place, no one goes there for a reason. There’s fifteen other planes anyways, there’s no need to visit nothing.” Jeremy perks up at ‘other planes’, sitting up straighter to lean over the table.

“Wait, there’s more dimensions?” He asks curiously, and Matt half smiles. It’s a good look on him.

“Yeah, sixteen of ‘em. I only go to like, five, but other people use the others all the time.”

“What are all of them? Who uses the others?” Maybe he’s needlessly complicating this explanation, but c’mon, _sixteen_ realms of magic or whatever? That’s cool as shit, and Jeremy needs to know about cool shit.

“Oh, fuck, okay, this will be a long one.” Matt clears his throat and sets his hands on the table. “There’s sixteen planes of existence, right? All different from each other. One is this place, the mortal realm, then there’s the Ether, the astral plane, celestial, whatever. They’re all like this…”

He picks up a napkin, unfolds it and spreads it out on the table. He then pulls a pen from his pocket and draws sixteen dots in a circle.

“Let's say this is the mortal plane.” He draws a line over a dot. “All the planes are neighboring each other, even if they’re on opposite sides of the circle. Don’t worry, I don’t get it either. They’re all connected, and you can feel them all if you're looking for it. I can go through all of them since I’m the Raven Queen’s employee, and death has no boundaries and all that deep shit.”

Jeremy nods, looking at him as he points out different planes on the napkin. He really is pretty, especially when he’s focuses on something. Jeremy can see why his old self was so into it, and why he’s getting a weird feeling in his chest. He beats it down in favor of listening to Matt.

“The celestial plane is where the gods are, and the astral plane is where I stay and keep my shit. The Ether’s where the souls go when I take them, and the wilds are where all the bad shit goes.” Matt finishes and sets his pen down. The napkin is covered in dots, lines and words, and Jeremy shoves it in his pocket for later reference.

“...Okay, I think I got it.” He says slowly as his brain still works to compute the information. “Yeah, I’m good, I think.”

“Sweet.” Matt gives him a thumbs up, and the table settles into silence. Jeremy takes a moment to think over his newfound knowledge.

So other dimensions exist, that’s cool. Gods and magic exist, and that magic made him forget most of his life along with his dead best friend, who then became the grim reaper. He’s been alive for sixty years, and only remembered it a few hours ago.

Alright. Now he has a new best friend who he may or may not have been in love with, and lifetimes worth of memories. What now?

“You...wanna meet my friends?” Jeremy says hesitantly, and Matt shrugs.

“We’ve got eternity to spend, might as well do it now.”

  
Jeremy opens the door to the penthouse uncharacteristically nervous. It’s not that weird for someone to bring a friend over, but he can’t help but be nervous, like someone will notice his unseeable immortality or that fact his friend’s dead.  
Matt follows him inside, looking around and whistling.

“Shit, you really have done good for yourself.” He says appreciatively. Jeremy shrugs.

“It’s my boss’s place, I just stay here sometimes.”

“Still a far cry from the shithole we used to live in.” Ah, and there it is again. Another reference to their old life together that Jeremy quickly found out makes him feel kind of uncomfortable for some reason. It almost feels like that was a different Jeremy, and Matt still thinks of him as that guy, but Jeremy can’t help but feel like he’ll never live up to that standard.

“Yeah, it is, I guess. Anyone home?” He calls out. His voice echoes slightly in the empty living room and he turns towards the hallway. “You can do whatever, just don’t break anything.” Matt nods and wanders towards the TV while Jeremy heads down the hallway towards the personal rooms.

The first two are empty, and Jeremy reminds himself it’s late. Everyone does have a place outside the penthouse, and it’s not like people sleep here often anyways. Still, his anxiety grows with every empty room, his stupid mind thinking the worst. Fucking anxiety.

Finally, he knocks and cracks open Geoff and Jack’s room, and sighs in relief. Jack’s leaning against the headboard of the bed with a book in hand, Geoff asleep at her side. She notices him and smiles, motioning for him to stay quiet as he walks in.

“Hey Jeremy, what’s up?” She whispers when he reaches the bedside. “Where you been?”

“I was out, and I ran into a friend. He needs a place to stay, can he use one of the spare rooms?” Technically it’s not lying. Matt probably doesn’t need to sleep, but it’s whatever. Jeremy’s just paranoid to let him go after just finding him.

“Yeah, sure. The others are at their own places, they’ll be here in the morning.” Jeremy thanks Jack and heads out, wishing her a goodnight before gently shutting the door behind him.

“Who’s that?” Matt says suddenly and Jeremy nearly screams.

Matt steps back from his place right behind him, hands up in peace. Jeremy puts a hand on his heart, willing it to stop beating so fast, and takes a deep breath.

“Matt,” he says, forced calmly, “I understand you probably haven’t interacted with people a lot over the years, but don’t ever do that again.” Matt, realizing the effects of sneaking behind someone and talking with no warning, looks sheepish.

“Sorry. Force of habit.”

“I’m sure it is,” Jeremy mutters to himself, forcing his hackles down. They gotta have a talk about proper etiquette for living people.

He ushers him down the hallway and back into the living room before dropping onto the couch with a sigh. Matt follows suit, and starts playing with his cuff links again. Must be a habit. Jeremy sighs again before leaning forward to make eye contact.

“Listen man, I know you haven’t been around living people in a while, but you gotta keep the sneaking to a minimum.” Matt’s sheepish look doesn’t go away.

“Sorry. I don’t normally make noise on the job, and I’m kinda always on the job.”

“I figured.” Jeremy rubs his eyes, the events of the day finally catching up to him. What time was it again? “Listen Matt, I’m fuckin’ exhausted. Can we do this tomorrow?” He conveniently yawns at the end, punctuating it perfectly. Matt mouths ‘oh’.

“Oh, I forgot you had to sleep, sorry. It’s like two in the morning isn’t it? Fuck.” He stands up immediately, glancing towards the door. “Should I leave, or…?”

“No! No.” Jeremy repeats, less dramatically this time. Matt looks at him with surprise. “No, you can stay. We have some spare rooms, and they’ve got beds. I don’t know if you sleep, but we’ve got ‘em.” He rambles just a little bit, but a part of him is absolutely terrified at the idea of letting Matt go, and it only settles down when he nods.

“Sweet, this way. You can have the one next to my room, if you’d like?” Jeremy leads him down the hallway and motions to a door. “Tell me if you need anything.” Matt nods.

“Goodnight Jeremy. Thank you.”

“Goodnight.”

  
Jeremy stares at the ceiling of his bedroom the next morning, barely hearing the sounds of his friends outside through the hurricane in his head.

He can’t find a word for how he feels about Matt. A part of him loves him, adores him even, but another knows him only as a stranger that gave him things. One trusts him, one doesn’t. One wants to stay by him always, and one is reason telling him that’s stupid. It feels like there’s two parts of him; emotional old Jeremy from the fifties onward, and sensible current Jeremy from the 80s onward.

Old loves Matt unconditionally, but Current doesn’t know him, or how to act around him, but he somehow does? He spent all of last night talking to Matt without a hitch. Fuck. It’s like someone took his feelings, threw them in a blender, dumped the results in his heart and said ‘good luck!’

Some part of him wants Matt to stick around, and he thinks it’s both Old and Current. He still gets thoughts that must be from Old; any attraction has to be from him, cause Current is definitely not interested.

Occasionally a certain bit of him will say something involuntarily, like he’s on autopilot. Like when he told Matt he loved him, and when he told him to stay last night.

He just naturally relaxes around him, like his presence alone calms him, and if Old was comfortable enough with Matt to affect Current, they must have been closer than Current understands.  
He doesn’t know how he feels, but he thinks he wants Matt around. If nothing else, he’ll have a friend to spend the rest of eternity with.

With that, Jeremy finally sits up. Comforted by at least a semi solid answer, he gets out of bed and gets dressed, ready for another day of questions and hopefully, answers.

He walks out to see Gavin doing his makeup in the kitchen down the hall, and he can just barely see Ryan in the living room. He smiles to himself - he still can’t believe he’s here sometimes - and turns to the room next to his.

“Matt?” Jeremy calls quietly, only for the door to swing open immediately. Matt’s holding it open, still in his red suit, only with his hair pulled back. Jeremy shoves down the thought he looks cute and smiles instead. “Hey buddy, wanna meet my friends?”

“Shit, it’s already morning?” Matt says, surprised. He probably doesn’t check the time anymore, being dead and all, and if Jeremy’s short time in other planes tells him anything, it’s that time is fucked over there. So Jeremy gives him some slack.

“Yeah man, it’s like, eight.” Matt makes a face.

“I don’t even sleep and I know no one should be up this early.”

“C’mon you baby, it’s completely normal.” He grabs Matt’s hand - fuck, he’s cold - and pulls him towards the kitchen. Matt only half resists.

They walk in together and Gavin ‘ooo’s, putting down their eyeliner to look the two of them up and down. Jeremy suddenly realizes the implications of walking in with another person at eight in the morning and kicks himself. Gavin’s gonna have a field day.

“Who’s this, Jeremy?” They say delightedly. They prop their head in their hands, smiling at him, waiting for an answer.

“My...friend, Matt.” Gavin’s smile widens, telling him his pause didn’t go unnoticed, and they look Matt over again.

“Good choice, love.” They nod approvingly and Jeremy puts his head in his hands. Matt just looks surprised.

“We didn’t sleep together, Gav.” Jeremy explains through his hands. He doesn’t have to look up to know they don’t believe him. “He just needed a place to stay for the night.”

“If you say so.” They hum, and Jeremy puts his hands down in favor of grabbing Matt and herding him to the living room. Gavin just smiles and picks up the eyeliner again.

“I forgot to mention my friends are assholes.” He mutters, not looking Matt in the eye. Fuck, he didn’t expect that, and fuck, it’s affecting him for some stupid reason. He blames his old self.

“It’s cool, just - confusing, I guess? I forgot people do that.” Matt says as Jeremy ushers him into the living room.

“Do what?” Jeremy swears, everyone in his life is out to scare him.

“Shit, Ryan, don’t do that.” He breathes, and Ryan looks at him amused.

“Do what? Sit here?” He says from his place on the couch holding a book and completely covered by blankets, one of which Jeremy’s fairly certain is his. Jeremy looks at him accusingly.

“You know! Being so quiet all the damn time. Hey, you two have something in common.” Jeremy motions to Matt, and Ryan looks over at Matt and smiles politely.

“Hey, I’m Ryan. You’re quiet too?” He says, friendly, and Matt smiles back.

“I scared him once. Apparently it was a big deal.”

“Hey, it was!” Jeremy protests. “You scared the shit out of me, you dick.” Ryan chuckles and looks down at his book again, smiling to himself. “Okay, this was a bad idea. You two are gonna start plotting against me.” Jeremy grabs Matt’s tie and pulls him towards the door before Ryan can say anything. Gavin winks at him as they pass through the kitchen and Jeremy tries, unsuccessfully, not to blush.

“Where are we going?” Matt asks. He’s bent forward thanks to Jeremy pulling on his tie, and Jeremy feels smug about it for some reason. Old must have a thing going on, but about what, he’s not sure. Maybe a height thing? He leaves that mystery for another day, and instead says over his shoulder, “Tell Geoff I’m going out.” His hand’s on the door handle when he hears a voice say,

“Tell me what?”

He turns to see Geoff in the hallway in a t shirt and boxers, running his hand through his hair and squinting against the sunlight coming through the windows.

Jeremy is _not_ going to explain to his boss who his sort of best friend is at eight in the morning. Just on principle.

“I’m going out, bye.” Jeremy repeats, reaching for the door handle behind him. Geoff looks over just in time to see something red get yanked out the door, and he looks at the others quizzically.

“The fuck was that about?”

“Jeremy brought home a guy last night.” Gavin says right as Ryan says,   
“Jeremy’s got a new friend.”

  
Matt, to his credit, doesn’t complain when Jeremy literally pulls him out the door and into the elevator, and he doesn't say anything until they’re standing outside the apartment building.

“Your friends seem nice.” He says, and Jeremy laughs, only kinda embarrassed.

“They’re something alright. I should have checked to see if Gavin was there, they’re a real asshole about relationships. Or lack of.” He tacks on the end as an afterthought, a disclaimer that no, they aren’t together, despite the fact it’s only the two of them out here. Matt shrugs.

“They seemed good to me. Been awhile since I met someone not set to die in a few minutes.” Oh, yeah. Jeremy kinda forgot about the whole reaper thing, honestly. Too many emotions to deal with to focus on something as unimportant as that.

He didn’t really notice how he’s already accepted the whole ‘magic exists and this guy’s a death servant’ as his new reality, did he? Huh. That’s a thing.  
But, as he’s done time and time again, Jeremy ignores thinking about anything else in favor of realizing about how hungry he is. He never did have breakfast.

“Hey, do you need to eat?” Jeremy asks and starts walking down the street, already expecting Matt to follow. He does.

“Nah, but I can. Just doesn't go anywhere.” Jeremy looks back at him curiously.

“Does it just sit in your stomach forever, or?” Matt shrugs. “Magic bullshit?”

“Probably magic bullshit.”

“Cool, do you want waffles or pancakes?”

“Waffles.”

“Good man.”

  
Jeremy wonders if fate really does exist, and wonders why the hell it decided to put him at breakfast with a dead grim reaper/best friend.

It’s not like it’s unpleasant, sitting here and talking, just weird to think about. Especially since he keeps putting memories to actions of said grim reaper/best friend as they talk, and Jeremy feels just a little less mentally divided. Like he actually knows Matt, not just remembers him from another life.

“So. I gotta ask.” Jeremy says abruptly. Matt looks at him warily, putting down his fork.

“Shoot.”

“Why’d you take so long to show up?” Matt immediately sighs, and Jeremy has a feeling he was waiting for this question.

“First off, don’t take this any of this personally. It might sound a little dickish.” Jeremy nods. “Cool. But I didn’t show up cause I didn’t want to.” Well, he was right, he does sound like a dick. But Jeremy lets him continue.

“It’s not like I didn’t consider it, but it would’ve be awkward for the both of us. Plus, you were ‘younger’, as young as you can be when you’re immortal, and you didn’t need to know about all this shit with all the stuff already goin’ on in your life.” Okay, that’s fair. “And I just - I didn’t want to face it, I guess? Admit I took all your memories, drop the immortal thing, show you all this magic stuff that took me years to process. You were doing great, and I didn’t want to throw the grim reaper, like, forty years of memories, and immortality at you.”

Jeremy has to admit, that was a pretty damn good reason, and he tells him so. Matt snorts.

“Thanks. I had a lot of time to think about it.”  
He falls silent, staring into space like he’s thinking about something, and Jeremy lets him, pulling out his phone to check his texts.

“...Would you mind if I left for a sec?” Matt says suddenly, and Jeremy frowns.

“Maybe, where you goin’?” He’s already stood up and in the middle of straightening his suit jacket when he answers.

“I got a bounty. I don’t know how long it’ll take, but I can meet you later?” A very large part of Jeremy is yelling at him that no, he can’t go, and the other, reasonable part of him is telling him he can’t be around Matt all the time.

“Yeah, it’s fine.” He finds himself saying, much to the clingy part’s panic. “You can come to the penthouse anytime or, actually, just take my address. Can I have your pen?” Matt hands it over and Jeremy scribbles the place on a napkin and hands it to him.

Matt tucks it in a pocket and thanks him for the food before he’s gone, with only the faint sound of birds cawing to show he was ever there.

Jeremy wonders if bounty hunting’s still dangerous if you’re already dead.


End file.
